The present invention relates generally to metal alkoxide compounds and more particularly to a water-soluble, water-stable, titanium alkoxide compound of the formula (OC6H6N)2Ti(OC6H2(CH2N(CH3)2)3-2,4,6)2.
Metal alkoxides (M(OR)x) are excellent precursors for the preparation of ceramic oxide materials and have applications ranging from electro-active ceramics, conductors, semiconductors, and catalysts. The structural arrangement of the precursor has been shown to play a significant role in determining the properties of the final materials. Unfortunately, controlling the structure of even the simplest M(OR)x species has not been realized; therefore, predicting the final structure of complex, mixed-ligand M(OR)x species is not yet possible. The variable noted for M(OR)x species is often attributed to the small charge to large cation radius ratio that requires the metal to bind additional ligands (i.e., bridging) to complete their coordination sphere. This phenomenon leads to uncontrolled cluster formation. In addition, the ligands often decompose to form oxides and unexpected structural rearrangements are often reported for supposed simple modification to M(OR)x. In particular, water-soluble, water-stable titanium alkoxide compounds would be of utility.
In order to minimize the oligomerization behavior of M(OR)x, a number of bulky ligands have been introduced to fill coordination sites without depleting the charge of the metal. Of these, the monodentate tert-butyloxide is considered one of the more sterically demanding ligands available and is often used to limit oligomerization although oligomers still predominate compared with produced monomeric species. One alkoxide ligand that has been successfully used to reduce clustering was tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (H-OTHF). The bidentate H-OTHF ligand is constructed in such a manner that it will preferentially chelate due to the non-charged Lewis bind site of the heterocycle THF. Other ligands that have been used include the thiophene methanol (H-OTPM) and pyridine methanol or 2-pyridylcarbinol (H-OPy) ligands.